India's First Visually Impaired Woman IAS Officer Takes Charge as Sub-Collector of Thiruvananthapuram

New Delhi, October 15, 2019:

India's first visually impaired woman IAS officer, Pranjal Patil, took charge as Sub Collector of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, this week.

30-year-old Pranjal from Maharashtra says “Never be defeated and never give up, because with our efforts all of us will get that one breakthrough which we want.”

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Pranjal who made history as India's first visually impaired woman IAS officer had lost her vision when she was just six- years old.

She cracked the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination in 2016 with a rank of 773. In 2017, she improved and raised it to 124, qualifying for the IAS.

The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) postgraduate was Ernakulam Assistant Collector during her training period.

Pranjal studied at the Kamala Mehta Dadar School for the blind in Mumbai in Marathi medium which was a challenge for her. She did her graduation in political science at St Xavier's College in Mumbai, with support from Xavier's Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged.

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